Why I am going to give in to my kid’s demand

A.M Naik recently moved out from the position of CEO of Larsen & Toubro after spending over 50 years in the company.

‘I gave zero time to my wife, no time to my children’

That’s about L&T chief Naik’s only regret as he gears up to cede control of the group.

Scary. Imagine giving 50 years of your life to a company. A relationship which will come to an end in another 2-3 years. Then what’s left for him? His family with whom he probably had spent such little time that it might be late to catch up and make memories.

We all need to work. Some of us are intelligent. Some are blessed. Some need to work very hard to make ends meet. For some money is easy. Whatever be the case, sacrificing family life for the passion of work, greed of money, sales targets has never made anyone happy. I don’t think it will unless you are one of the few heart-less souls on planet earth.

My kid is demanding at times. She needs us physically to be around her. She seeks our attention when we are reading or watching television. She asks us engage in activities so that she can spend more time with us. She demands that bedtime is not without a story session.

Tough day at work, you want to finish dinner and hit the bed. You want to read a few pages of your book or watch the latest episode of House of Cards before you doze off. Parenting is tough so you can’t make the choice and have to pick the latest princess story instead.

It may not be fun every night, but when you see the kid asleep after her short story session you realise the value of that 20 minutes and sometimes even 1 hour.

My wife puts it very beautifully:

This is the age when she demands time from us. Life will turn around and soon she will grow up. School, studies, friends, classes etc – then we will be the one seeking time from her.

Every morning we promise ourselves. More time for the little one. Let’s make the most. Let’s make memories while we still can.